Film Style and the World War II Combat Genre

Book excerpt: Film Style and the World War II Combat Genre is a detailed examination of the stylistic means by which filmmakers depict stories of combat. The work furthers contemporary discussions by analyzing a range of World War II combat films to a degree of detail which has previously escaped critical attention. This substantial examination of cinematography, sound, editing and acting in a range of movies including Saving Private Ryan, Windtalkers, Bataan, and Objective Burma! demonstrates the importance of close attention to the textual construction of these films specifically, as well as cinematic texts more generally. The work advances the original analytic descriptions of “controlled spontaneity” and “reported realism” as theoretical concepts which explain why viewers regard certain stylistic techniques as realistic. This notion of realism is then further understood through reference to a body of research in cognitive psychology to argue that the density of audio-visual information in contemporary combat films is a significant factor in creating a sense of realism.